


since we've no place to go

by sadwolf



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Laura Hale Lives, M/M, Past Lydia Martin/Stiles Stilinski, Sharing a Bed, Snowed In, but there was only one bed!, stereklcozy, sterekweek2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:22:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27211162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sadwolf/pseuds/sadwolf
Summary: Derek peeked over the edge of the loft to survey the rest of the cabin. There was a fireplace and a little old-fashioned television, a kitchenette and a plush couch that looked perfect for cuddling but not so perfect for sleeping on. It was a small and cozy place, perfect for a single person or a romantic getaway but not ideal for two strangers who hadn’t even exchanged names.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Comments: 4
Kudos: 124





	since we've no place to go

**Author's Note:**

> hello! coincidentally on the day i am posting this fic it snowed for the first time of the year in my area!!! not too much snow but still very exciting! happy sterek week everyone please enjoy :)
> 
> the theme for this work is cozy comfort

Derek turned the key into the lock, letting out a sigh of relief as he pushed open the door to the cabin and then closing it just as quickly to keep out the flurry of snow. He had arrived much later than he had expected and it was already late enough in the evening to be considered night, and he had barely made it before the front desk closed. It had been a long day of traveling and he was eager to fall into bed, and didn’t even bother turning on the lights or unpacking or even changing into pajamas before fumbling his way to the ladder to the loft area and then collapsing into the bed.

Only to find the solid presence of a body that startled suddenly awake as he fell onto them, saying, “What the fuck?”

“That should be my line,” Derek muttered dryly as he launched himself back up to standing and finally found the lights.

He was greeted with the sight of a man, hair askew and tired eyes blinking into wakefulness, looking very pale in the sudden light. He looked like some fae creature come to steal Derek away into the snowy wilderness, or else a ghost to haunt him. And Derek officially needed more sleep.

“Are you a robber? I don’t have anything, really, I spent everything on this vacation.”

“I’m just trying to sleep in my own cabin,” Derek replied.

This earned him another blink. “ _ Your _ cabin? This is my cabin, I’m sure. The key fits and everything.”

“Pretty sure my key fits, since I just unlocked the door.”

“Well one of us is in the wrong cabin. You have the Rosewood cabin?”

“I mean...when I booked online I had the Mistletoe cabin but I assumed they had changed it when I arrived.” Derek felt very tired.

“You didn’t think to ask?” There was a distinct note of judgement in the man’s tone that Derek didn’t like.

“I was tired and it was close to closing and I...just wanted to sleep. And I didn’t really notice at the time. I’m just realizing it now. I didn’t expect to find someone in my bed.”

The man considered this, then seemed to accept it. “All good points. But it seems we’ve been double booked, and there’s only the one bed. It’s...a small cabin. And I was sleeping here first. You’re not even in pajamas.”

Derek noticed now that the man was wearing a pair of sweatpants that were bright red and had little snowmen holding cups of hot chocolate on them, as well as a t-shirt that said  _ Keep Me Warm _ that looked to be well-worn. It looked like a cozy ensemble. Derek had a thought flash through his mind that he wouldn’t mind keeping him warm and again, he needed more sleep.

“Is there a couch downstairs?”

“There is, but it’s more of a loveseat really.”

Derek peeked over the edge of the loft to survey the rest of the cabin. There was a fireplace and a little old-fashioned television, a kitchenette and a plush couch that looked perfect for cuddling but not so perfect for sleeping on. It was a small and cozy place, perfect for a single person or a romantic getaway but not ideal for two strangers who hadn’t even exchanged names.

“I just realized, I don’t even know your name,” the man said, as if reading Derek’s very thoughts.

“It’s Derek.”

“Everyone calls me Stiles,” Stiles grinned and stuck out a hand, which Derek shook, noting how warm and firm it was in his grip.

“Well, Derek,” Stiles continued, “It appears we are at an impasse.”

“How about we share the bed for tonight, and then in the morning, I go to the front desk and get my actual cabin, and we part as acquaintances who shared an awkward experience for a night.”

“Sounds like a great story to tell at parties, I’m in.” Derek had a feeling he would be thinking of that wide grin for awhile. “But only as long as you get in pajamas, you’re going to be so uncomfortable in jeans, dude.”

“Don’t call me dude.”

Derek climbed down the ladder and opened his suitcase to bring his clothes into the bathroom to change into some sweatpants and a shirt he brought for working out in as he usually slept without a shirt but it was better than his day clothes. He didn’t want to make Stiles uncomfortable and sleep shirtless. Stiles was already lying in bed snuggling the pillow and Derek silently slid in next to him after shutting off the lights, slowly drifting off to the sound of quiet breaths and the whirling wind outside.

~~~

“Dude. Derek.”

Derek breathed in deeply, a delicious scent similar to cinnamon filling his senses as he drifted into consciousness. He remembered that he was on vacation, that he had taken a trip to a winter cabin for his birthday at Laura’s suggestion and that...he had been double-booked and hadn’t gotten the alone time he craved and was instead with a stranger. He opened his eyes.

Stiles was looking right at him.

“What is it?” he grumbled, running a hand through his hair and blinking himself further awake.

“We have a problem,” Stiles replied, darting away to climb down the ladder steps. Derek took a few moments to sigh to himself before following.

Stiles opened the front door and Derek froze. The snow was  _ piled _ outside. There was no way they could even walk outside, not a single step! 

“The storm was worse than the weather report expected last night,” Stiles was saying, “And it just kept going after we went to sleep. The kitchen’s stocked and there’s a washer and dryer stack in the bathroom but it looks like we won’t be able to leave for awhile.” He gave a wry smile and shut the door to keep the cold out and keep the snow from piling inside. “Looks like that party story is about to get even better, right?”

Derek let out a laugh that was a bit humorless. “Right. Well, we’re supposed to be on vacation anyway. Maybe it’ll be better not to be alone?”

Stiles’s smile seemed to turn a bit more brittle, though Derek had no idea what he said to make it so. “Right,” he repeated. “Wanna watch tv?”

There was nothing else to do, so Derek agreed, though he started making them breakfast first.

~~~

Derek would have thought being trapped with another person in a tiny cabin would have been an exquisite sort of hell, but it actually was not that bad. Maybe it was because it was with Stiles. Or maybe it was because it hadn’t been that long yet. They passed the time by talking and Stiles could talk a lot, and by playing board and card games that were on the shelves, by reading in each other’s presence, and by watching television, though mostly Stiles flipped aimlessly through the channels. Derek never wanted to watch anything in particular so he found he didn’t mind. 

Stiles was a more physical person than Derek and would often lay across Derek on the couch or would put his feet in his lap, and Derek awoke the next morning to find Stiles clinging to him tightly, but it was all very comfortable somehow. Derek wasn’t much of a people person and didn’t often like to be touched especially by people he didn’t know and yet, Stiles didn’t bother him much. Rather, he welcomed Stiles. It was just because Stiles was...Stiles.

He hoped Stiles approved of him in a similar way, and he seemed to. He laughed at Derek’s dry comments and delved into deeper conversations with him with ease. They discussed everything from the weather (which was a hard topic to avoid when being snowed in and the weather was thus the cause of their being around each other) to the books they were reading ( _ Pride and Prejudice _ for Derek,  _ Kafka on the Shore _ for Stiles) to their opinions on the latest movies they had seen, but neither of them talked much about their pasts.

Derek never really talked much about himself to anyone, and he didn’t ask much of anyone else either. It seemed that there was something that Stiles was avoiding--on topics of romance especially, when they came up, not that Derek was particularly bringing them up, Stiles seemed to be quiet. Derek could understand and avoided these topics for him. Even if he was beginning to feel. Interested.

It had been a long time since Derek had felt that way about anyone, but if Stiles wasn’t interested in him then he wasn’t interested in Stiles. 

He wished he could talk to Laura about this, but the cell service they did have was spotty at best. The wifi also worked less than half the time so they were mostly left to their own devices, which left Derek with a lot of time with Stiles and not a lot of time to contemplate his growing feelings anywhere else.

~~~

It had been three days and they were watching the movie of  _ Pride and Prejudice _ which they had found on Netflix during a period where the wifi was working, shortly after Derek had finished the book (he was rereading it and had read it many times). Stiles had been getting cold so they had a fire going warm in the fireplace and it was in the evening, and he had curled up close so that Derek had his arm over Stiles and was holding him rather tightly.

They had reached Derek’s favorite scene, the  _ rain scene _ and Derek was watching raptly when he felt eyes upon him and he turned to see Stiles watching him, their faces close in proximity, and Derek could suddenly see his lashes against the firelight and the glow of the television as he glanced down at Derek’s lips. Derek looked at Stiles’s lips in return and before he even knew what had hit him they were kissing.

Perhaps it was the tensions of being together for so long a time with no other company, or the tension of the movie that Derek loved so much, or the tension of the fire in contrast with the snow or simply the tension of Derek and Stiles or perhaps all these tensions but whatever it was, the pair of them were entangled in a passion of kissing for but a breath before Derek pulled back to say,

“What are we doing, Stiles?”

Stiles took in a breath of air to reply,

“I think...I really like you, okay? But, this vacation...I was dating someone, this girl I’ve loved since as long as I can remember, like fifth grade, and I thought she was everything I wanted and when we were together I thought she was finally everything I wanted but all we did was fight and this was supposed to be our vacation together but right before we came here she told me that it wasn’t working and that we would be happier apart and that I should still come on the trip just not with her and I thought I would be miserable alone and then…” he said all of this in a heap of words, tears in his eyes and nearly overflowing, “And then you just came out of nowhere and you were so  _ perfect _ and I realized that Lydia was never really what I wanted at all but that I could be myself with someone else and it could be perfect and I hoped that you would feel the same and tell me now if I’ve been imagining this?”

Derek smiled and brought a hand to Stiles’s face. “You haven’t been imagining this, I think I’ve been...falling for you, these past days. It’s been so quickly, but I’ve never met someone I can put up with half as well as I can stand you,” Stiles let out a breathless laugh and then they were laughing together and the movie was still playing in a swell of emotional music and Derek thought this moment may be perfect, besides the tears that threatened to fall, “You’re perfect, Stiles.”

Not everyone would think Stiles was perfect and Derek definitely knew not everyone would think he was perfect but Derek knew then, they were perfect for each other.

Stiles burrowed back into Derek’s side and they finished the movie with only a bit (a lot) of commentary, which was okay with both of them as they had each of them seen it many times. Derek found he wouldn’t mind being snowed in with Stiles for quite a time longer but they were only stuck for a week, at which point their vacation was due to end.

It turned out they lived only an hour away from each other and they promised to visit each other often, and they kept their promises. And each year for Derek’s birthday, and for their anniversary, they took a trip to a secluded cabin for a week and if they got snowed in, they didn’t mind.


End file.
